I'm a huge proponent of free speech but with that, people MUST understand that it doesn't mean you can say whatever the heck you want without taking ownership of your words. Taking responsibility of your words is absolutely crucial in the concept of free speech working. You want to say something controversial? Go for it. You should not be arrested and incarcerated for having an opinion.

Harassment and bullying aren't matters of free speech. There ARE kids on these servers. And while the ones under 13 are breaking the terms, the ones between 13 and 17 are not. Being a jerk because you won something in the game is a whole different beast than telling someone you're coming to their house with a gun and you're going to blow away everyone. One is being a jerk, but covered by free speech. The other is a threat, whether or not it can come to pass in actuality, and can cause someone to feel like their life is in actual and tangible danger.

The internet is hardly new. People have been making nameless, faceless "anonymous" asses of themselves for decades. Now that more people than ever are able to connect, the problem is certainly not getting any smaller.

I don't think it's reasonable to ask people to plan every word they say and consider every possible reaction someone might have to it. I do think it's very reasonable to ask people to take ownership of their speech and to recognize that the persons reading it may be someone's 13 year old kid.

I think the other thing of some importance is that this current generation of kids seems to have absolutely no concept of what information they should be revealing on chat. I have learned more intimate details about some people on this game than I have ever asked for or ever wanted to know. I wouldn't say it's any sort of mission of mine to correct. I have my own kid learning the ropes of the internet now and there are very strict rules in place about what information she is permitted to share. And if I find she breaks them, she will lose her access. It's just that simple. I have, however, encouraged many of the youngest people on my server to not share their ages, where they live, where they go to school and so forth. And I'm terribly disappointed that I seem to be the first person telling them that. I even told a young lady yesterday, after she was saying on realm she wanted to call me on the phone (knowing I am an adult and she is a child) that I didn't think it was safe for her to share those details with anyone in the game, that I was thankful for her trust but for all she knew, I could be a 100 year old creepy little man. She said that scared her a bit. I told her it should :P

So yes, kids need to be more careful with what they share in order to prevent something tragic. But knowing that they're not, I do personally feel some sense of responsibility to help them learn what's ok without being over the top about it.